Community leaders gather to discuss Shared Revenue funding

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - Community leaders in Central Wisconsin gathered in Stevens Point on Friday for a round table to discuss the state’s Shared Revenue funding.

The Shared Revenue is one of the main sources of money for local governments in Wisconsin. These funds cover essential services like police and fire departments as well as parks, and libraries.

A roundtable discussion was held at the Portage County Annex Building on how community leaders plan to use the shared revenue in their respective cities.

“That allowed an increase in the money we already pay in that’s being returned to municipalities,” said Mayor Mike Wiza of Stevens Point

Mayor Wiza and Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg have similar ideas about how this money can improve their cities.

“For the city of Stevens Point that means about $860,000 that we can use on our operational budgets,” said Mayor Wiza.

“It helps us avoid an increase, a million more dollars. It’s in the context of our $130,000,000 budget. It’s still a lot but it really matters to us, we are doing our best to make sure we are giving the best value to our citizens and making sure we are fair to our employees,” said Mayor Rosenberg.

Mayor Wiza explained the first thing they are going to do is make sure their employees are compensated properly. The city will receive about $860,000 that it plans to use on its operational budget

“By having that additional revenue comeback to us the money we have already spent coming back to us in the form of increased shared revenue means less of a burden we have to place on the property tax owners,” said Mayor Wiza

Rep Katrina Shankland said having this roundtable is a great first step in improving services across the state.

“I’m excited that people are going to be able to use these shared revenue increases to make sure not only our community healthy and safe but so are our first responders because they will have better staffing,” said Rep. Shankland.

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